VOL. LXIII, No. 4
WASHINGTON
APRIL, 1933
GEO GAPIG 4
Inll
COPYRIGHT, 1933, BY NATIONAL GEOGRAPHICSOCIETY, WASHINGTON, D. C. INTERNATIONALCOPYRIGHT SECURED
RIVER-ENCIRCLED PARAGUAY
BY HARRIET CHALMERS ADAMS
AUTHOR OF "MADRID OUT of DOORS," "CIRENAICA, EASTERN WING Of ITALIAN LIBIA," "BARCELONA,
PRIDE OF THE CATALANS," ETC., ETC.,
IN THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
T IS four days by steamer from Buenos
Aires to Asunci6n, the capital of Para
guay. We might have made the jour
ney by rail in 52 hours, on a train that
crosses the Parana River by ferry from
Zarate, 56 miles from Buenos Aires, to
Ibicuy; passes through the fertile Argen
tine Mesopotamia, between the Parana
and Uruguay rivers, to the Argentine fron
tier; recrosses to the Paraguayan shore on
another ferry, and continues through un
dulating grass and woodland to Asuncion.
However, remembering with pleasure
our first voyage up the Parana 14 years
earlier, we chose the steamer to carry us
to this remote, river-encircled country,
so rich in dramatic history and so little
known to North Americans.
For three days after sailing we had Ar
gentina's richest agricultural provinces on
either side. The river, at first gulflike, nar
rowed between low-lying islands fringed
with feathery pampas grass.
On our former voyage, at flood season,
I had seen the shore villages nearly sub
merged, the stream strewn with floating
islets, known as camalotes, formed of
earth, weeds, and roots, upon which car
pinchos, or capybaras, snakes, and other
upriver creatures were borne seaward.
The harbor of Montevideo had been so
choked at that time with these strange
floating islands that traffic was seriously
hampered.
Our present voyage was in the floodless
month of July, midwinter at this end of
the hemisphere.
Fortunately, each day brought us nearer
a mild climate. Our fellow passengers
were mostly home-bound Paraguayans.
There were several Argentine families es
caping from cold weather and a few com
mercial travelers. All spoke the musical
tongue of Cervantes, the speech of some
ioo,ooo,ooo people to-day.
The man next me at table declared he
thought English a brutally harsh language.
"Imagine," he said, "trying to say shrimps
when you mean camarones!"
NO MEAL FOR A VEGETARIAN
Dinner, an elaborate seven-course meal,
was not planned for vegetarians: thin
soup of meat stock, cold meat and salad,
thick soup of meat and vegetables, meat
and greens, cheese and fruit paste, bana
nas and mandarin oranges, coffee, liquors.
That instrument of torture, the river
steamer piano, sounded far into the night;
but it seemed not to disturb the card
and domino players, who gathered in the
saloon under a placard announcing that
gambling was strictly prohibited.
There are travelers who always wear
an historic lens. I confess to an unflag
ging interest in the old Conquistadores.
We followed in the wake of Sebastian
Cabot's sturdy caravel, plowing its way up
the uncharted waters of the Plata to the
Parana (Mother of the Sea), and on to the
Paraguay, at the gates of the Tropics.
It was in 1526 that Cabot, a Venetian
pilot in the service of Spain, followed the
lead of Juan de Solis and Magellan, and